High school actors dream of one day becoming famous for their craft. They imagine a future date when they are sitting on a late night tv show and the host pulls out a video clip of them performing in whatever play they are currently doing in school. This dream may motivate them to a better performance, but the future rarely works out that way.

A significant percentage of today’s movie and tv stars did get their start in high school productions of plays and musicals. They learned their craft and first experienced the thrill of performing at an early age. Whether in drama or speech classes, community theater, or just trying out for the high school play, they took their chance, and years later, it paid off.

Oscar Winners

Anne Hathaway — from the girl in The Princesses Diaries to an Oscar for Les Miserables, Hathaway has portrayed a dizzying array of characters, but it all started in Millburn High School in New Jersey.…

The American Dream tends to equate celebrity with wealth and overall success. In reality, many celebrities are unprepared for the financial complexities that can accompany success in their given field. As a result a number of actors, musicians, singers, and other celebrities have faced their share of financial problems.

Here are some of the most famous incidences of celebrity financial difficulties.

Lauryn Hill — The rapper/songwriter spent time in jail in 2013 for tax evasion and will be under home confinement for a year as a result of failing to pay over $1 million in federal and state taxes.

Nicholas Cage — The Academy Award winning actor at one time owed over $14 million in taxes and faced jail time of his own. By working closely with the IRS and seriously scaling back on his formerly extravagent lifestyle, the actor has managed to reduce his tax debt to $6 million.…

One big advantage of celebrity is being able to pursue dreams that are out of the reach of most people. Some of the most popular actors, directors, and musicians have turned their passion for driving fast and their dream of racing into a reality. Here are some celebrities who were/are also professional race car drivers much like Scott Tucker.

James Dean

The iconic actor loved racing and was able to achieve his dream, racing in the SCCA/Cal Club/Long Beach MG Club Palm Springs Road races, driving his beloved Porsche Speedster.

Steve McQueen

Another actor whose films included racing, McQueen moonlighted as a race car driver. In 1970 he won the 3 litre class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and only missed the overall win by seconds. He was also scheduled to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, but was forced to miss it because he was set to film a movie about the race.…

It is not surprising that 2012 has been an interesting year for Hollywood movies. Before the year started, most moviegoers where anticipating several titles that were scheduled to open within the year. As the year draws to a close, here are the Top 8 movies that so far rocked the box office in the Year of the Dragon.

The Dark Knight Rises

The movie failed to hit the mark set by Avatar, which is the highest grossing movie of all time. But it grossed more than $700 million worldwide. It shattered all opening weekend records. It reached the $500 million mark faster than any other motion picture. To date, people are still talking about it especially its unexpected ending.

The Amazing Spiderman

The movie, which earned $368 million in total, is a proof that moviegoers love familiar material. Andrew Garfield and his leading lady Emma Stone surprised the audience with their fresh take on their respective roles.…

Brittany Murphy was born in Atlanta, Georgia in November of 1977. She demonstrated talent and a personal magnetism and charm at an early age. She was also a talented singer. Her mother moved the two of them, her parents had divorced when Murphy was two, to Los Angeles in part so that the young performer could pursue her career there. The world is now aware of Brittany Murphy due to the unseemliness and tragic nature of her death and most people associate her with Los Angeles though residents of Atlanta known she was one of their own. Even the tourists who may have heard about her death in the lounge or lobby of an other wise quiet Atlanta hotel may have been surprised to discover she was from that city.

Murphy stared in several Hollywood films during her short but successful career.…

The idea of self-sufficiency is one that doesn’t come around often enough. It seems to be a pattern that occurs every other generation, where young people decide that it’s time to start making things simpler, and this begins with learning some of the more elementary survival skills. Of course, there are always going to be subcultures and hidden communities that try to live off the grid for one reason or another, and sometimes these communities have absolutely opposing political viewpoints. On a more mainstream level, there are people who are exploring the idea of self-sufficiency in the way that Thoreau conceived of it.

The last time it happened on a more mass scale was over a generation ago, when the counter-cultures were at a peak level. The generation of the 60s came of age in the early 70s, and publications like The Whole Earth Catalog became popular and prevalent. …

When Lauryn Hill shot to stardom with the Fugees in the early 1990s, there was no way of imagining she would serve jail time for tax evasion in 2013. Yet that’s exactly what the successful singer, songwriter, actress and producer faces after a court ruling handed down earlier this month.

Hill was sentenced on May 6th to serve three months at a federal prison camp. This will be followed by three months of home confinement to be monitored electronically and another nine months of monitored release. The rapper failed to pay taxes on $2.3 million in earnings and failed to file tax returns for several years. She pled guilty to three counts of tax evasion in 2012, each count could have led to a year in jail, but the judge instead gave the minimal sentence.

Problems with the financial policies within the recording industry led Hill into seclusion and semi-retirement several times throughout her career. …

Even if you’re only casually into motorsports, it’s still important to know the big names. You can fake your way through a conversation about football or the latest Seahawks loss, but do you really know what you’re talking about when the name Shumacher comes up? If not, then here are a few of the most noteworthy drivers out there today:

Michael Shumacher

Michael Shumacher, though recently retired, is a former Formula 1 driver that is generally considered to be the best of all time. He’s a seven time world champ, and still holds the record for the most points scored in one year. On the car show Top Gear, Shumacher was revealed as The Stig, the show’s own anonymous race driver, who has motor oil instead of blood, and is afraid of stairs.

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick is, hands down, the most successful woman in the history of American open wheel racing. …

Celebrities may seem to slide by with a lot of things in life and have many things that others struggle for simply handed to them. One thing that being famous doesn’t do for them, however, is allow them to escape from legal troubles. Celebrities face legal problems just like anyone else, and face struggles that others aren’t likely to contend with in their lives. Being a celebrity does not exempt anyone from having to follow the laws or cope with the same legal system as the rest of us—and may even make it more difficult to approach these problems. Celebrity legal problems can quickly escalate to tremendous scandal in the public eye, which will put additional pressure on already strained emotions.

The 22 year old music star recently broke up with her boyfriend of 18 years, Connor Kennedy. The relationship lasted a whole three month, which is long for Swift. Conor is a high school senior. Many believe he just could not keep up with Swift, who recently released her new album entitled “Red.” The album is doing very well and rumor has it that one of the songs on the album is about their breakup.

#6 — Samantha Ronson and Erin Foster

The nine (9) month relationship between 35 year old disc jockey and song writer Samatha Ronson and her 30 year old partner Erin Foster , also ended this year. Foster is an actress, famous for her role in the TV drama ‘The O.C.’ Rosen was previously in a relationship with Lindsay Lohan.…